Dream Theater TikTok account

[MinistroRaven]

If you would like to get Dream Theater news updates & videos on TikTok, you can now follow us at tiktok.com/@dreamtheaternet 🤘

[Nel]

I'm getting to that age where I'm trying not to add more sites/apps I need to visit to keep up with bands.  I already had Facebook and Twitter, I had to be pushed to use Instagram and Snapchat. I don't have the energy to add TikTok and Discord.

[Cool Chris]

I have this forum. That is all I need.

[TAC]

Dream Theater on tiktok?

So does this mean if they have rude waitress, we'll get a video?

[The Letter M]

Ooooh, will we see Jordan dressed up as a Wizard doing the Fortnite dance? Or James dressed up as a pirate lip-syncing to Metallica? 

-Marc.

[Setlist Scotty]

With all the crap I hear about TikTok, I'll pass. Plenty of other places to get my DT news.

[MoraWintersoul]

Ooooh, will we see Jordan dressed up as a Wizard doing the Fortnite dance? Or James dressed up as a pirate lip-syncing to Metallica? 

-Marc.

Probably not but we should

TikTok is perfect for short videos, announcing stuff, answering questions (you can select a comment someone sent you and make a video response to it and the original comment shows up in the video, without having to write down the question somewhere else and read it out) and so on and so forth. I don't have the app, most of it trickles down to Instagram Reels anyway.

[MinistroRaven]

Rodrigo shared this with me and some friends on the subject:

Apparently the level of engagement a band has on social media is something that promoters will consider nowadays when it comes to selling a package. So they're all doing it out of necessity.

Here's what Satriani said in a recent interview:

"Part of the music business is pretty cruel. It’s numbers and statistics. It’s always been about ticket sales, but back then it was a lot about radio. These days, the social media thing is really a big deal. It’s the first thing promoters do: They see if you’re trending on TikTok or Instagram. They need to determine if they want to take the risk."

[cramx3]

Ooooh, will we see Jordan dressed up as a Wizard doing the Fortnite dance? Or James dressed up as a pirate lip-syncing to Metallica? 

-Marc.

Probably not but we should

TikTok is perfect for short videos, announcing stuff, answering questions (you can select a comment someone sent you and make a video response to it and the original comment shows up in the video, without having to write down the question somewhere else and read it out) and so on and so forth. I don't have the app, most of it trickles down to Instagram Reels anyway.

Tiktok, if used right, can be a great platform for unique content.  Check out Herman Li of Dragonforce for example, the guy is killing it on tiktok IMO. 

With all the crap I hear about TikTok, I'll pass. Plenty of other places to get my DT news.

Having said what I just said, I think DT will not offer anything interesting on the tiktok platform so I doubt you are missing anything.  If the use it the way they use other platforms, it will be pretty boring and likely lacking content.  DT is piss poor in modern social media....

Rodrigo shared this with me and some friends on the subject:

Apparently the level of engagement a band has on social media is something that promoters will consider nowadays when it comes to selling a package. So they're all doing it out of necessity.

Here's what Satriani said in a recent interview:

"Part of the music business is pretty cruel. It’s numbers and statistics. It’s always been about ticket sales, but back then it was a lot about radio. These days, the social media thing is really a big deal. It’s the first thing promoters do: They see if you’re trending on TikTok or Instagram. They need to determine if they want to take the risk."

Not surprising at al.  It's a metric and can likely correlate to ticket sales.  It's very important for an artist to be active on social media to gain attention of new fans and keep existing fans engaged.  Tiktok is so popular right now, and with young people, that you'd be foolish not to jump into the platform if you want to continue growing your brand. 

[Stadler]

Not surprising at al.  It's a metric and can likely correlate to ticket sales.  It's very important for an artist to be active on social media to gain attention of new fans and keep existing fans engaged.  Tiktok is so popular right now, and with young people, that you'd be foolish not to jump into the platform if you want to continue growing your brand.

But does it?  I'd be the first to tell you that this place isn't indicative of anything, really, but how many people here can have their fandom measured by social media stats?   Especially something like TiKTok, which, at least for me, doesn't have any work relevance as well?

I get them doing it, but I feel we're retreading the same old ground; what's that expression? What comes around goes around?  I remember listening to a fair amount of radio, but most of the bands I REALLY liked were never there.  And I can point to 100's of articles in magazines like Kerrang! on the bands I liked where they'd lament "It's all about radio, but we're not a radio band, so...".   We're just changing the adjective.

[cramx3]

Not surprising at al.  It's a metric and can likely correlate to ticket sales.  It's very important for an artist to be active on social media to gain attention of new fans and keep existing fans engaged.  Tiktok is so popular right now, and with young people, that you'd be foolish not to jump into the platform if you want to continue growing your brand.

But does it?  I'd be the first to tell you that this place isn't indicative of anything, really, but how many people here can have their fandom measured by social media stats?   Especially something like TiKTok, which, at least for me, doesn't have any work relevance as well?

I get them doing it, but I feel we're retreading the same old ground; what's that expression? What comes around goes around?  I remember listening to a fair amount of radio, but most of the bands I REALLY liked were never there.  And I can point to 100's of articles in magazines like Kerrang! on the bands I liked where they'd lament "It's all about radio, but we're not a radio band, so...".   We're just changing the adjective.

Every band is different.  Social media may have a direct correlation to ticket sales for one band and be completely irrelevant for another, but I'd bet for a vast majority of bands, a promoter can get a good idea of a crowd size based on social media interactions.  And I would make that bet because as Minostro pointed out, it's actually being used and I don't think these people who are putting their money where the data is would be doing so if it wasn't a good indicator.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean about work relevance though.  Contrary to popular belief, tiktok is a not a dancing app. 

[Stadler]

Fair points, Marc, and I can see this being VERY accurate for some artists.

All I meant by the work thing was, I can only speak for my company, but I can see having a Twitter account for work purposes, but I can't see having a TikTok account for work.  I can't imagine anything that could happen on TikTok for a company that sells trains that couldn't (or doesn't) happen on, say, Twitter. 

[cramx3]

Fair points, Marc, and I can see this being VERY accurate for some artists.

All I meant by the work thing was, I can only speak for my company, but I can see having a Twitter account for work purposes, but I can't see having a TikTok account for work.  I can't imagine anything that could happen on TikTok for a company that sells trains that couldn't (or doesn't) happen on, say, Twitter.

Different audiences though. The content can be the exact same across the platforms, but you will be hitting different people.  I'm sure there's a fair amount of overlap, but as you can see here, there's some people who won't use certain platforms for whatever reason.

If I look at my group of friends, I have some on facebook, instagram and twitter, but most aren't on all three.  Turns out my twitter followers are actually a very different group of people than my instagram followers with only a very small amount of overlap. 

In the end, tiktok is growing faster than the other social media apps, a company would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn't have tiktok as part of their marketing strategy. 

[faizoff]

The content can be the exact same across the platforms, but you will be hitting different people. 

Reminds me of this clip from The Office with Ryan saying your message goes on all your social media, phone, email, desktop all at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrVskziCc4w&ab_channel=Bark

[TAC]

You make some good points there, Marc.

[Cool Chris]

Contrary to popular belief, tiktok is a not a dancing app. 

  Whenever I see an add for TikTok, it is a clip of a girl showing off a) a new outfit, b) how flexible she is, or c) how jiggly her butt is.

I had assumed this is how it worked:

The content can be the exact same across the platforms, but you will be hitting different people. 

[ZirconBlue]

They'll only be able to show one band member at a time since, apparently, all tik tok videos are required to be shot in portrait mode.

[Stadler]

Contrary to popular belief, tiktok is a not a dancing app. 

  Whenever I see an add for TikTok, it is a clip of a girl showing off a) a new outfit, b) how flexible she is, or c) how jiggly her butt is.

That might be the new advertising campaign.   If the girl has "View From The Top Of The World" across her ass, that might put some fans in the seats!   

[hefdaddy42]

Contrary to popular belief, tiktok is a not a dancing app. 

  Whenever I see an add for TikTok, it is a clip of a girl showing off a) a new outfit, b) how flexible she is, or c) how jiggly her butt is.

That might be the new advertising campaign.   If the girl has "View From The Top Of The World" across her ass, that might put some fans in the seats!

That would be a HUGE ass.

[Stadler]

Contrary to popular belief, tiktok is a not a dancing app. 

  Whenever I see an add for TikTok, it is a clip of a girl showing off a) a new outfit, b) how flexible she is, or c) how jiggly her butt is.

That might be the new advertising campaign.   If the girl has "View From The Top Of The World" across her ass, that might put some fans in the seats!

That would be a HUGE ass.

Not a dealbreaker. 

[hefdaddy42]

 

[Buddyhunter1]

Contrary to popular belief, tiktok is a not a dancing app. 

  Whenever I see an add for TikTok, it is a clip of a girl showing off a) a new outfit, b) how flexible she is, or c) how jiggly her butt is.

That might be the new advertising campaign.   If the girl has "View From The Top Of The World" across her ass, that might put some fans in the seats!

That would be a HUGE ass.

Worked for Mastodon!

[ReaPsTA]

Surprised no one's said this - Your social media engagement indicates your ability to promote your tour and sell tickets.

Also, we're knee deep in the attention economy at this point. Your social media presence shows your ability to get a trend or narrative or topic of thought going to your audience. It also indicates your ability to influence the various algorithms and get new people to pay attention to you. Even for an older band like Dream Theater, new fans matter. They bring new life/money to the fanbase. We're mostly older people here so it's harder to remember - but culture is primarily a function of what the kids are into.

On the other hand - misusing social media data is worse than not having it at all. You end up wasting time chasing Phantoms.

[cramx3]

On the other hand - misusing social media data is worse than not having it at all. You end up wasting time chasing Phantoms.

In that case, DT should probably get a new social media team because what they are doing now just isn't very good.

[Dublagent66]

DT on Tik Tok is laughable. 

[cramx3]

Explain.  It's not laughable to me, it's actually needed IMO and totally business related.

Now, if they start using it to make what most people think of when they think of "tiktoks" then yeah, it may be pretty funny

[ReaPsTA]

On the other hand - misusing social media data is worse than not having it at all. You end up wasting time chasing Phantoms.

In that case, DT should probably get a new social media team because what they are doing now just isn't very good.

There's videos of LaBrie singing snippets of DT songs people on cameo paid for that have tens of thousands of views.

Real John Petrucci psycho exercises.

At least hire whoever does Rudess/Mangini's social media.

[nikatapi]

On the other hand - misusing social media data is worse than not having it at all. You end up wasting time chasing Phantoms.

In that case, DT should probably get a new social media team because what they are doing now just isn't very good.

There's videos of LaBrie singing snippets of DT songs people on cameo paid for that have tens of thousands of views.

Real John Petrucci psycho exercises.

At least hire whoever does Rudess/Mangini's social media.

I have the impression that Mike does his social media himself.

[cramx3]

The new trailer for the tour they just released, like why wasn't that done during the NA leg?  Maybe I'm wrong here, but I feel like while on tour they should be posting on all socials daily with content. 

[cramx3]

Not directly related to DT, but music and tiktok in general if anyone is interested: HOW TIKTOK 'RUINED' MUSIC